


abysmal oceans where good girls go to die (i wanna love somebody)

by dankobah



Category: Love Island (UK TV), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (Ben helps someone cheat outside of the show but never ever does it to rey okay?), Alcohol, Beaches, Ben Solo Has Issues, Ben is a boxer, Bipolar Disorder, Cheating, Drama, Dyslexia, F/M, Learning Disabilities, Love Island AU, Medication, Mental Health Issues, Reality TV, Rey Has Issues (Star Wars), Rey is a mechanic, Smut, throw your bikinis on and lets get started
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:08:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankobah/pseuds/dankobah
Summary: “Get ready aspiring lovebirds!  Heartkiller Island is back for a third season and we heard it was the most explosive one yet!  The premise is simple: ten weeks, one private villa, many possibilities for love.  Watch as daring girls steal “faithful” boyfriends, strapping lads steal so-called “pick me” girls.  This season of Heartkiller is set to be the craziest one yet, so tune in week to week as the drama unfolds.”orthe Love Island (TV) AU that no one asked for
Relationships: Dopheld Mitaka/Aayla Secura, Finn/Kor Sella, Kaydel Ko Connix/Poe Dameron, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, rose tico/armitage hux
Comments: 17
Kudos: 56





	abysmal oceans where good girls go to die (i wanna love somebody)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlbaStarGazer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlbaStarGazer/gifts).



> for Holly, because you’re a fucking amazing person who deserves the world and this AU to come out of my docs.
> 
> with all that being said, tags listed above! lets get started party people.

**_Get ready aspiring lovebirds! Heartkiller Island is back for a third season and we heard it was the most explosive one yet! The premise is simple: ten weeks, one private villa, many possibilities for love. Watch as daring girls steal “faithful” boyfriends, strapping lads steal so-called “pick me” girls. This season of Heartkiller is set to be the craziest one yet, so tune in week to week as the drama unfolds._ **

| 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝 **Introductions** 💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 |

_A catchy dubstep remix of a pop theme song plays as the title screen comes onto the screen. A knife goes through the heart punctuating the “i” in “killer”, and the screen fades black before popping onto a dressed set with a sparkly pink glitter background._

_A brunette girl spins around in the chair, then settles down with a bright and sunny smile. Her freckles read like tiny constellations across her nose and cheeks and any viewer would fall in love with the girl next door vibe she exudes._

_“Let’s welcome Heartkiller Island’s contestants, starting with our youngest!”_

_The bubbly brunette opens up, “I’m Rey, I’m twenty, and I’m a specialty mechanic from London. I’m definitely considered to be one of the boys, I like football-” her face scrunches as she amends quickly with a wrinkled nose, “not the American kind obviously.”_

_She continues on, showing off her figure in a bright blue high waisted bikini with a thong bottom, hitting a red and white beach ball into the air and giggling to herself. “I can talk cars with your boyfriend, but it doesn’t mean I necessarily want to screw him. I just love a good engine.”_

_Then a raucous giggle splits through audio, and she smiles, “But don’t think I’ll tolerate any other **** stealing my man.” Of course the foul word was bleeped out, but the point still stands._

_The narrator pipes up, “Watch out, fellow ladies. I don’t think she’s kidding.”_

_Rey smiles a sickly sweet smile, “Oh, I’m_ **_definitely_ ** _not.”_

| 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 |

_A rock song plays as the dark-haired, rather large man flexes his large biceps against a blue glitter background._

_Then he perches on the stool and introduces himself as he says, “I’m Ben, I’m twenty nine and a boxer and personal trainer from Philly.” He punches a bag to display his prowess, looking as serious as can be._

_“I’m not a huge jokester or clubber. Most of the time, I just really want to be in a room with a bag and metal music.”_

_Then he gestures to his facial scar and laughs, a loud chuckle that booms from his chest._

_“If I told you how I got this scar, I would have to box you. We don’t want that,_ **_right_ ** _?”_

| 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 **Day One: The Initial Coupling** 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 |

You see, Ben didn’t expect to be on a reality show in the tender year of 2019, not when his personal life was such a shitshow.

Ben is a big dater. He doesn’t mean to be (fuck, he really doesn’t), but sometimes girls take testing out, like a hundred days on a mattress before you fully commit to potential crazy. 

He knows this is a flawed strategy to find love. He’s planning on fucking love straight in the ass, taking the hundred thousand dollars, and ditching the lovely lady politely at the airport with a “this isn’t going to work”. A hundred thousand dollars can buy him Invisalign for his fucked teeth, probably a new penis if he asked for as much. Not saying anything is wrong with his dick at the present moment, but god damn it, maybe he wants to know what foreskin feels like. At least he could know he’s not missing out on anything particularly insane or mind blowing.

He spends his days beating people’s faces in, with padding or without, or personal training little primadonnas who can barely jog on a treadmill. Ben didn’t ask to be considered a “rookie” boxer, unsigned to an agent and fighting little matches between guys that he knocks out in twenty seconds and getting accosted by their pissed girlfriends in the parking lot after.

Sometimes he fucks their girlfriends under their noses, but that’s for the couple to work out on their own. It’s not their fault that their proclaimed ring girl has a wandering eye and a penchant for huge cock. 

Though this “fucking other girlfriends” policy has a chance to backfire, like the time he got in the ring with a guy whose wife was riding Ben two weeks before. He knew, Ben knew, she knew standing at the side of the ring, and Ben nearly got brain damage from the strength of the other boxer’s hits. Of course Ben sent him on his ass with blood dumping from his own beak of a nose like a hose, spitting it on his chest and saying, _“She says my fucking name, huh? That’s why you're so pissed, huh?”_

Now he’s on a reality show looking for love and someone to sign him on to manage him. He needs a manager to get into the bigger rings, over the concept of regional and local matches that he can do with his hands tied behind his back. No, he wants the big-boy matches, in the big-boy ring with the big-boy pay.

And maybe, just maybe, he could find a girl to attend those matches. 

Ben minds the fact that they’re handsy while mic’ing him up. The pack clips on the back of his hip, hitting against his toned back as he paces around the staging area and waiting for his cue from the PA to walk on for his entrance to meet the girls.

He knows how Heartkiller works; he’s studied the show in depth. He’s going to head out there and see five hot girls. They’ll step forward if they like him (or not if they don’t), and he gets the pick of the litter. He’s first to go out, which he knows is a simultaneous disadvantage and advantage. Impulsive girls who fall in love on sight will choose him, and the cagey primadonnas will sneer at him and refuse to step forward.

Ben knows he’s not the hottest guy in the bunch, that much is evident with the likes of Poe and Finn standing around in the staging area with tanning oil on their chests. Hux is skinnier than him, so he’ll probably die of hypothermia in the pool before a girl even picks him. Mitaka is also a shrimp of a man.

“Ben Solo, you ready?” A PA asks it, looking at a clipboard. Ben raises his hand, and steps over to the X on the ground. He checks his breath, then absentmindedly fixes his hair as he watches a screen countdown.

“And, go.”

He starts walking, hearing absolute silence. He hopes there’s music over his entrance, especially as he reveals himself from behind a wall in the villa’s backyard. His board shorts are a basic black, and maybe he should’ve chosen something more thrilling on the eyes like Poe’s neon orange.

It’s too late now as he lands on the podium and then looks up at his beautiful options. Some girls are staring at him with a slack jaw; some are rubbing their chin in contemplation. Those are reactions he wants.

The reaction he doesn’t expect is the brunette all the way at the end, who is just staring at him with a puzzled face. It’s like she’s researching genetic patterns in ducks, without having access to ducks. That’s not good, and she gets crossed out in his head.

The host, a buxom and bombshell-reality-show blonde by the name of Sola Derry says, “Ladies, this is Ben Solo, twenty-nine and a boxer living in Philadelphia. Anyone who fancies him, please step forward.”

Four girls step forward. The brunette at the end does not. Sola notices this, like him, “Rey, why have you not stepped forward?” 

_Rey_. The name rolls off the tongue so pretty, like globs of honey into hot tea. She stares at him, then looks at Sola before shrugging and awkwardly laughing. Clearly she didn’t want to be put on blast, and she should’ve just stepped forward if she didn’t want to be on blast. 

She wrings her hands and answers, “Just seeing my options.”

_Options._ She’s one of those girls, who can’t decide what’s good for them.

Ben will decide for her, now he’s determined to. Sola says, “Okay, Ben. You have a pick of any of these girls, but just remember that someone can steal the girl from you in the choosing process. Who do you want to get to know better?”

He plays like he’s surveying the entirety of the group, before his eyes land on Rey. They lock with hers, and hers look near pleading that he doesn’t choose her. The look is almost enough to get him to reconsider, but ultimately not at the peak of what he needs to stop himself.

His lips wrap around his choice tighter than a condom, “I pick Rey.” 

Rey pretty much deflates, instead of looking excited. Ben jogs over to her, knowing this moment should be more celebratory. Instead, she gives him an awkward one arm hug.

This is going to a long ten weeks if she looks like a cat that got hit with a car the entire time.

| 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 |

Rey did not expect to be picked first. Gods help her.

She thought that maybe some cute little boy next door would pick her, someone she could snack on for ten weeks and get an easy hundred grand.

No, instead, she got a six foot five boxer with a facial scar and a sneer like impenetrable diamonds. He’s dripping wet from a stumble in the pool, long hair curtaining his face and being shaken away with a jerk of his neck. The motion resembles a dog flicking water everywhere and earns him a shove from Poe.

Rey can’t help but adjust her bikini top, the rainbow printed neoprene scooting over the sides of her nonexistent chest. Compared to Rose, she’s the least endowed here and probably the least worthy of the title of “audience eye candy”. How the hell was she coupled up with him again? She refused to step forward out of the excuse of “reviewing her options”, and with a cunning grin, he picked her anyway. Now they’re separated as if it didn’t happen, and she’s watching him get splashed by Finn and Poe in the pool.

Rose looks on like her, and as if she’s trying to make Rey feel better, “They’re all fit. Even Ben.” Rey barely knows these girls, and she knows she shouldn’t trust them, but she needs support in this tender time.

Kaydel sips from her margarita. “Can you believe that Poe is a pilot and I’m an air hostess? You can’t get more small-world than that.” Rey can say no such things about boxer Ben Solo, never having touched a bag in her life.

How the hell is this supposed to work?

The microphone is heavy on her neck, the battery pack hitting along her spine as she gets off the barstool. Heartkiller Island is all about ratings, isn’t it? Even if she’s cut off from the world like everyone else, she can assume the public is thinking she’s frigid as they come.

It’s time to kick up that Jakku heat, literally. She loops around the bar, reaching for a beer in the fridge and taking the time to open it sans teeth. A beer bottle with the cap pried off by a pair of chompers is the least appealing thing she could come up with, so she holds off in favor of carefully stepping down the stairs and heading to the pool. 

Hux is sitting across from Aayla Secura, who is already paired off with Mitaka and completely disinterested in anything that the ginger had to say. She bypasses them easily, Korr Sella capturing Finn’s attention and leaving Poe and her target staring at Finn and Kor.

The water is warm as she wades up to the two, being uber careful not to fall flat in the water and make a fool of herself. Ben is shaking his hair out when she steps up to the two of them, beer thrust between their bodies.

His facial scar up close is the most intimidating thing she’s ever seen on a man, cutting between his brows and down his face. It continues on his chest, stopping just over his right nipple. It’s healed, skin a normal color despite the trench. Rey averts her eyes as he takes the beer, fingers avoiding touching. He tips it back in his mouth, and god she wants to ask him all sorts of questions.

_Why did you pick me? Why not anyone else that stepped forward for you?_

She knows the answers. She’s appealing to him in the wrong ways, a tasty meal for dinner and someone to pull into the hideaway room. “Thanks.” Simple, to the point. She nods, turning around beginning to wade away. Preferably to another section of the pool, but he’s clearing his throat. “Can we talk?”

He asks it desperately, enough to get her head to turn to look back at him. If she was in front of the telly at home, she’d see a shocked face of a girl who’s way in over her head. She nods, looking back at the girls who are convened around the counter and watching the show that she and Ben are putting on from safety.

Ben nods to himself and keeps his distance, leading her away from the pool. She can’t help but follow behind with quick feet. “So, you’re a boxer?” It’s time for small talk.

He just nods, taking her through the neon and white palace they live in for the next ten weeks. Even past the beds that they’re expected to share later, and she’s hoping to god she doesn’t snore too loud. There’s a balcony off the bathroom, past a sliding glass door and containing a plush l-shaped couch with blue and fluorescent yellow pillows strewn about. Private is an understatement; this should be her new spot to hide.

She sits on the far end while he sits on the other end. “Mind if I stretch out?” Good god, he’s tall. It’s hard to ignore.

“Go ahead.” He drinks more of his beer and she wishes she brought her own liquid courage. He kicks up his feet and she can’t help how _clean_ and uncalloused his toes are. That’s an attractive quality in a man.

She blurts out before she can dwell, “Why did you pick me?”

He glances from his beer before taking his own deep breath. “I like you.”

“Okay, but plenty of other girls liked you. I didn’t step forward.”

“Why didn’t you _really_ step forward?” She couldn’t give a believable answer to the host, and she can’t now. So she shrugs, twiddling her thumbs. Ben does the unexpected: he moves closer, and she doesn’t shrink away for once. 

Instead, she looks at his scar again, wondering where it came from and who did it. She answers simply, “There’s a strategy to this show.” She’d like to say she’s here for love, and she is, but the hundred thousand dollars is so appealing. It could get her a flat, her own flat with a view. Maybe someone to share that flat with isn’t a bad idea. 

That is...if they don’t run off with the cash.

Ben says, “Now I’m not going to blame you if a man walks through that door that you like more. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ll be good to you. If that means sleeping downstairs for the entirety of the competition, then I will.”

Is he really baring his soul? What tactic is this?

“Why are you here, Ben?” He’s a curious one, especially given the willingness to do anything for her. 

He pauses. Then he says, as cryptically as he can, “That’s for everyone to figure out.”

How mysterious. It pisses her off. Rey looks back towards the bathroom, seriously considering pressing on his buttons further. That won’t get them anywhere in this competition and she knows she’ll drag his reasoning out of him eventually.

But for now, it’s time to play nice, “You won’t need to sleep downstairs.”

He asks, seeming genuinely shocked, “Yeah?”

What is she doing? Giving up the potential of an unshared bed like this? She goes further, “Yeah. If you’re okay sharing a bed with Dossy.”

He asks, “Dossy?”

“My teddy bear.”

He laughs, “I’d be honored.”

| 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 |

The night is hectic with a bunch of inebriated people, liquor flowing freely and making Rey a little uncomfortable given that she doesn’t drink. She’s got problems with alcohol that she doesn’t even understand herself, just knowing her stomach and brain revolt whenever she thinks about taking a sip.

So she just sips on a blood orange sparkling water in a koozie and watches everyone else get fucking wasted on television. Rey brushes her hair out of her face, adjusting the yellow maxi dress on her hips and making sure the slit up her leg doesn’t reveal anything unmentionable. Rey has a weird habit of not wearing underwear, and she didn’t take that policy into deeper account when changing for the night. 

The plunge neckline reveals the locket on her neck, a permanent fixture resting on her collarbones that she had been found with. It’s become a choker at this point, and she rubs it between her thumbs as she watches her surroundings. She doesn’t trust a lot of these guys (except Poe and Finn, because they both radiate the type of energy you want to party with). 

Ben is drinking a beer, also in a koozie as he looks around the opposite side of the pool. They split off after their conversation and agreement to sleep in the same bed, and she watches Rose speak to Hux animatedly. Rose has everything she wants: a rocking body, a bubbly personality, and clean fingernails that don’t permanently smell like motor oil despite an uncharacteristic acrylic makeover. 

Ben crushes the can and loops around the pool, walking to the recycling bin in the outdoor kitchen. Rey sips her sparkling water again as he then steps up to observe next to her. The microphone pack against her spine is very apparent now, along with the microphone clipped against her chest. 

Ben remarks, “Kind of chilly, huh?”

She looks over and glances him up and down before shrugging. “I guess. You are wearing a short sleeved polo.” 

He glances at her own short sleeved dress, shaking his head to himself and probably deciding not to argue with her infallible logic. “I do snore, by the way.” 

She sighs, knowing full fucking well she didn’t bring ear plugs nor noise-cancelling headphones. Ben then says, as if he’s clairvoyant, “I brought ear plugs you can use. Fresh pack.” 

“Thanks.” 

He reaches behind him and grabs another beer out on the counter, slipping on his koozie to label it as his. Ben brushes hair from his face as they both observe Korr and Finn disappearing behind the wall enclosing an outdoor daybed. Maybe they’re about to suck face, which Rey can only say “good for them” in response to that. She’s slightly miserable so she’s glad someone is happy with their coupling.

Ben is staring at her, and they lock eyes. She asks, mostly as a joke, “Something on my face?”

He shakes his head, turning red in the lowlight and then saying, “Nothing. Just observing.” 

She cocks her head, “Observing my face?”

He shrugs, “We’re on a television show on an island. I have nothing else to do.” She supposes that’s a fair point, but Rey doesn’t consider herself attractive. 

She brushes a stray strand of hair out of her face, and Ben asks, “What do you eat for breakfast? Ideal breakfast meal.” 

She shrugs, “Eggs, sausage, fruit cup.” It's what she gets before work at basically any fast food joint on the way. 

He nods, and she wonders where the hell that question came from.

She supposes she’ll find out.

| 🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕🏝💕 |

A shower feels good on his muscles and fraught brain.

He makes sure it’s steaming hot before he gets in, and does his whole scrub down and hair care routine within two minutes of standing in the steam. The rest of his allotted ten minutes are used to stare in space, trying to remember any daily maintenance he could’ve forgotten that would be making him feel so homesick.

He snaps his fingers when it pops in his head, snapping his fingers and saying to himself, “Medication.” He takes around fifteen hundred milligrams of Lithium to manage his bipolar disorder, recently having increased just in case he had a tough adjustment period on Heartkiller. 

A female voice calls, “Ben?”

He peeks his head out of the glass shower, seeing Rey in the empty men’s bathroom. She spies him and sighs, “Can I borrow some toothpaste? I forgot to pack mine for some reason.”

He’s not stingy, “Yeah. It’s in the black toiletry bag, embroidered with a BS.” Rey finds it on the ledge under the mirror, perched over the sinks. She pulls out the tube of Crest (complete with Scope, because halitosis isn’t attractive), and squirts some on her bright blue toothbrush. She starts to brush at the mirror and he grabs a towel while she’s distracted, turning off the shower and wrapping it around his waist after squeezing water out of his hair. Then he steps out and steps up to the sink next to her, grabbing the paste and squirting it on his own black electric toothbrush that he set up at a plug before his shower. 

He scrubs his teeth clean and watches Rey fix her high bun, set at the top of her head for sleep probably. Then he pulls out his punch pack of pills, popping out five of them. She observes this, but doesn’t say anything as he guzzles them down with water and wipes his mouth. Then he slathers on face lotion, making sure to drag it down his neck and also over the scarring on his chest. “Ear plugs?” she asks. 

He nods, pulling them from the toiletry bag and handing her a plastic wrapped case of reusable ear plugs. Rey nods, “Thanks. I’ll be in bed.” She walks out of the bathroom, back into the room where everyone is getting ready for bed. He migrates to the men’s closet and pulls out a pair of sweats and boxer briefs, sliding them onto his frame.

Then he enters the shared bedroom, seeing Rose and Hux in bed together. Rose is already out cold with an eye mask on, despite all the noise. Rey is flopping onto the left side, his preferred side, and he decides to quickly let it go. Maybe they can switch sides next week.

He gets into bed, leaning against the headboard as he grabs his glasses case from his backpack that she so lovingly moved to the right side for him. He snaps it open, grabbing a random book that he packed as well and slides the frames onto the bridge of his nose. He needs glasses to read things in lowlight, a curse given to him by his mother. 

Rey is twiddling her thumbs, since they all basically put their phones in a bucket not to access them for the next ten weeks. Ben is thriving without his Samsung honestly, being completely off the grid gives him an opportunity to read the books he’s always wanted to. He reaches into his backpack blindly and pulls out the first book in the Magic Treehouse series. He brought about twenty of them since the books are so thin (meant for older children), and he sets it in Rey’s lap.

Rey looks over at him and asks, “What’s this?”

“One of my favorite book series. There’s like twenty eight of them, easy reads.” 

Rey sighs quietly and whispers, “I’m not really good at reading, the words get jumbled-“

Dyslexia is something he’s vaguely familiar with, mainly because he was tested for it when he was put in a “special learning” program at ten for his inability to focus. They kept him there until they found out he really could actually focus, he just felt unsafe in his classroom due to bullies. His dad ultimately told him to suck it up and his mother forced him back into the classroom where he’d get his facial scar only two weeks later. He interrupts her, “They’re really easy. Try it out.” 

She sighs and cracks it open, sitting up more and leaning over the book. He says, to maybe make her feel better, “If it helps to read out loud, you can.” 

She sighs, “It makes me feel worse to read out loud.” 

He nods, “Then don’t. But if you do need help, I’m right here. I know those books like the back of my hand.” 

She nods and then screws her face in determination when refocusing on the chapter book while he refocuses on his historical fiction book about the Cuban revolution. 

The whole act feels so domestic that you would think they’ve been married for upwards of ten years.

Instead, they’re on a reality show for ten weeks, and Ben doesn’t know how the fuck **any** of this is going to go.

**Author's Note:**

> yeehaw let’s go! literally ive had this in my docs since may of last year, and i just got back into the show during this ongoing pandemic to feel something! beta done by the lovely [Kayla! (please follow them, they are lovely)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kmgonz134/pseuds/kmgonz134). also this fic would never have gotten pulled from the depths of the docs if it wasn’t for this art by [Lou (lovebarmaid)](https://twitter.com/lovebarmaid/status/1319801311588700167?s=21) and them talking about it! thoughts and feelings are always welcome at [twitter](https://twitter.com/dankobah).
> 
> work title is inspired by [”bad intentions” by niykee heaton](https://open.spotify.com/track/5W3UniuRMkHHIpaiQo1hAW?si=IpFEm3ssRAmxBnVRavrUpw). chapter title is inspired by [”hot girl bummer” by blackbear](https://open.spotify.com/track/2mt1IqcFyY1zmYZT8Q3xw9?si=KNCWcVvLToigXhi2jbsaeA).
> 
> [rey’s blue bikini](https://frankiesbikinis.com/collections/bikinis/products/gabe-high-cut-cheeky-bikini-bottom-ocean?variant=31835957788741)   
>  [rey’s rainbow bikini](https://triangl.com/collections/sets/products/remi-rainbow)   
>  [rey’s maxi dress](https://us.boohoo.com/floral-frill-detail-wrap-maxi-dress/DZZ28629.html?color=174)   
>  [the playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GXy9FkbWTffPvfxUjXCbV?si=gGPM4ENTTdOCkxqldPdDKw)


End file.
